Building construction



Patented oct. 22, 1940 2,218,694

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 4 Application July 3, 1936, Serial No; 88,773

comm. (01. 20-1) (Granted under the act of March 3, 1883, a amended April 30, 1928; 370 O. G. 757) The invention described herein, if patented, may be of any material suitable for building conmay be manufactured and used by or for the struction, the principles of my invention being United States, for governmental purposes, withapplicable irrespective of its nature. out the payment of any royalty thereon. e panels which are used in my building sys- Heretofore, in building construction, particutem are of predetermined widths, lengths, and larly as practiced in the construction of wood thicknesses, the last mentioned dimension dehouses, the usual procedure has been, first, t P n g primarily on the kind of material and lay a foundation of brick or concrete or stone or the degree of protection desired. For example, similar heavy material, and then to support the steel panels may have a thickness of the order framework of the house on this foundation. The 01 1 inc whereas wood panels may be inch framework comprises columns, joists, beams, thick or more, and concrete panels may be more framing girders, and similar members, and these than 3 inches thick. The length and width-will are designed to support the weight of the superbesuch as to permit ease of handling, though I structure and the robable loadjng prefer to make the length between 8 and 9 feet In the construction of wood houses, the skeleto p nd with the height of one story. The ton or framework comprises vertically extending ends of the panels, to interdigitate with the apcolumns or studs and horizontally extending propriate fittings. co t in grooves. s vesyor beams or joists. These members must be of the o ues, or splines, or any combination thereof. proper dimensions to support their own weight, Preferably, o reduce the cost of manufacture the weight of the accompanying lath, plaster, and to pe se o an o ve the ends 20 woodwork and other parts of the structure, and of the panels and provide the fittings with also the weight due to the live load. Usually, es to mate therewith. the bearing members are fitted empirically by the. vIf desi e floors, ce a d roof of the workmen on the site, and the accompanying structure y be constructed similarly, the main dead-load members like the covering, filling, and q ent being app op ate fittings 25 fireproof material are then cut to match these other advantages Will appear to ose skilled supporting members. It will be appreciated that in t art as t sp fi a i p e ds. this procedure is time-consuming, inefficient, The a omp y drawing tes some and expensive, features of my invention, although it is under- The primary object of my invention is to 1m- StOOd that H1856 embodiments are illustrative and 30 prove this method of constructing houses, and not limitative. and that variations y be de it proposes to erect a house through the instrui size, p p and Other d s, W thout mentality of a plurality of similar structural p ti from e Spirit O t e invention. The elements which I designate as panels or modules. figure ust a e in c em c form O e y O These panels or modules are designed to bear the rrying out my inven io some of the el ments 35 proportionate share of the weight and loading being own in c on for t s o p yof the completed structure, in contradistinction W th reference o the drawing, I w a pa to the former method of first erecting a frame tial horizontal w Of a Structure embodying y or skeleton which alone bears the weight and v nti A corner or -fi t n is s wn t "I,

thereafter adding thereto the filling or nona cross -fi at and a p io 01' T- 40 weight-bearing members. fitting at II.

An essential feature of my invention resides in With particular reference to the L or comerthe fact that my panels may all, or substantially fitting. the length o the fi su ed from all, be made of the same dimensions, or multithe center line t the is represented y a.

pics thereof, both for exterior and for interior This ta ce a is equal to the distance D, which 45 use. Thevariations in size due to outside comers ep es e Width of the fittings disand internal partitions are compensated by jointance a. or b will be the basic or unit dimension ing or connecting members which I here desigused throughout my system. nate as fittings. With a sufiicient number of The c ss or x-nartition II is cted on such fittings, I may proceed with the erection the sam basic di n i n 0 r b, 0n multiples 50 of houses which differ from one another merely thereof. The total length of this fitting is equal in multiples of a. panel. It will be obvious that to. 211, and the total width is equal to 21). such procedure will result in a minimum of The T-fitting, asrepresented, has a total width handwork at the site. It is understood, of of 2b and a length of a.

course, that these panels or the fittings, or both, The panels of my structure are represented at 56 II, II, and 11. The total length 01' the panel I! is equal to In; the total length of the panel it is equal to 2b; and the total length of the panel I! is equal to la.

It will be apparent that the panels or the flttings or both may have dimensions which are multiples of the basic unit a or b. For example, the corner or L-fltting ll may be twice as long as it is wide, or the partition or T-i'ltting I! may have a dimension two or more times that shown, or the panels may be longer,

with this arrangement I can erect a structure of any dimension which is a multiple of my basic unit a or b without going to the trouble and expense of cutting or forming the various members. I am enabled to construct buildings with the use of unskilled labor and in a very short time. The benefits this system will be apparent to those who have engaged in construction work.

Another advantage of my system resides in the fact that in the use of my corner or L -partition Hi, the contiguous panels I! and it may be joined thereto at a distance from the actual corner which is equal to the unit distance a or b. In other words, I may join the panel l5, for example, to the member l0 along a line or a plane. Heretofore, in joining two members at a corner it has been necessary to align both members with nicety in two planes perpendicular to each other, in order to have the edges of the members in contact. In my system, once the member ID has been positioned, it is relatively. easy to join its adjoining panels l5 and I 8 thereto.

If it is desired, for some reason or other, not to use the basic dimension for all members, it will still be advantageous to employ the type of fitting shown and described herein in order to obtain ease of erection and or joining. I

There are many ways ofeflecting the union of two adjoining members. This may be' done by the use of the grooves, or sleeves, or tongues, or splines, as already indicated, or any other means may be employed, such being known to those skilled in the art.

It is obvious, of course, that one panel may be joined to another panel, or that one fitting may be joined to another fitting, where this is necessary or desirable in the structure.

Having now described my invention, what I now claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A building fitting comprising three projecting portions, two of which are collinear, adapted to mate with other building members oi substantially the same thickness as said projecting portions, the distance between the eflective ends of the projecting collinear portions being a multiple of the distance between the effective end of the other projecting portion and the centerline of said projecting collinear portions.

2. A building construction comprising panels and fittings, each of the fittings comprising at least two projecting portions adapted to mate with other building members of substantially the same thickness as said projecting portions, the distance between the effective ends of the panels being a multiple of the distance between the effective end of any said projecting portion of a fitting and the center of any other portion noncollinear thereto.

MSTISLAV N. EGOROFF. 

